Closings

Severe Weather

World's worst natural disasters

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in history, hit the Visayas region in the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013. The storm killed at least 6,300 people in the Philippines alone and caused around $1 billion in damages. Haiyan was also the strongest storm recorded at landfall, and unofficially the strongest typhoon ever recorded in terms of wind speed.

In 2011, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, sparking monstrous tsunami waves that reached Hawaii and the U.S. west coast. Nearly 16,000 deaths were reported, although some bodies were never recovered.

The second-largest earthquake to ever hit Chile occurred in 2010, when a magnitude-8.8 temblor struck off the coast, causing a tsunami that resulted in 525 deaths. The largest -- also the most powerful on record -- occurred in 1960.

More than 300,000 people died and 3 million were affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, devastating the island country.

China's biggest earthquake in a generation struck May 12, 2008. It left tens of thousands dead, missing or buried under the rubble of crushed communities, plunging the nation into an all-out aid effort. Troops and rescue teams struggled by air, land and water to reach areas of southwestern China stricken by the huge quake that demolished schools, homes and factories.

Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar on May 2, 2008. Nearly 140,000 people died and $10 billion in damages were reported.

The 2005 Kashmir Earthquake hit Pakistan Oct. 8, 2005, with a magnitude of 7.6, killing more than 70,000 people.

More than 1,200 deaths were blamed on Hurricane Katrina when it devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, breaching the levees and flooding most of New Orleans for days.

On Dec. 26, 2004, when many tourists were celebrating the holidays, an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a series of devastating tsunamis that killed about 187,000 people. It is the worst tsunami on record.

An earthquake hit Bam, Iran, on Dec. 26, 2003. More than 26,000 people lost their lives.

On July 28, 1976, a massive quake, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale, shook the industrial mining city of Tanshan, China. About 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed and around 255,000 people lost their lives.

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